The technique from Apple is reliable and, judging by the reviews of the owners, has served for years. But any touchscreen phone has a weak point: the touchscreen (screen). If the iPhone 5s sensor does not work, it is almost impossible to use the device.
How to understand that the problem is in the sensor?
- there are visible defects: the upper glass is broken, some areas of the screen are illuminated or differ in color from the rest of the pixels – this can be from a strong fall;
- there are 'blind spots', separate areas in which the sensor on the iPhone 5s (or other model) does not respond;
- the screen responds to touches with a delay or from the tenth time;
- the phone lives in a parallel universe: it types text itself, follows links, opens and closes applications;
- the sensor does not react at all on iPhone 6, 5, 5s, 7, 7 plus, X.
To understand whether you can fix the phone yourself, you need to figure out the cause of the breakdown.
So why is the touchscreen not working on the iPhone? Faults can be software or hardware.
OS malfunctions
Software ones occur less often, these are malfunctions in the phone's operating system:
- The device has an overloaded RAM and it just 'freezes', often because of this, the iPhone 4s sensor does not work;
- Overheating of the phone (for this reason, certain parts of the touchscreen may not respond, applications may close spontaneously);
- Software failures can be the result of the installation of unlicensed software or viruses.
Hardware failure
Hardware faults are hardware damage that requires replacement parts:
- Severe impact, fall from a height, resulting in damage to the outer glass or display module;
- Wear of the touch screen (the phone has simply served its purpose);
- The outer glass peeled off and dust accumulated between it and the display module – this is a feature of iPhones 6 and 6 plus, due to which the sensor does not work;
- Liquid contact with the touchscreen loop contacts, processor or motherboard.
What to do if the sensor does not work
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If there is no visible damage, the cause may be a software failure. In this case, you can fix your phone at home:
- Make sure nothing is interfering with the sensor. Remove the cover, the bumper, remove the protective glass – perhaps the problem is in the wrong accessories.
- Then you need to completely reboot the phone by holding down the 'home' and 'power on' buttons simultaneously for 10-15 seconds. On newer models, instead of the 'home' key, you need to hold down the volume up button.
- The phone will restart, boot up longer than usual, do not be alarmed.
After that, if the reason was overheating or an OS failure, the touchscreen should work fine.
You can also try to reset your phone to factory settings and then restore data from a backup. This can be done in the settings, it will help if problems arose due to incorrectly working applications.
How to reset iPhone to factory settings if sensor doesn't work
You will need a cable (original, serviceable) and a computer with the latest version of iTunes. Attention: this is a hard reset, after which all data on the phone is deleted, if there are no backups, you cannot restore them.
- Launch iTunes and connect your device to your computer.
- Start recovery mode by holding down the 'Home' button (or volume up) and the power key for 10-15 seconds. If you did everything correctly, the recovery screen will appear.
- iTunes will offer to restore or update your phone, choose restore.
- The phone will then be reset to factory settings.
When to contact the service center
If none of the above has helped, the reason lies in internal damage. Do not try to fix them yourself. Drying with a hair dryer or rice will not help if moisture gets in, as it will not get rid of oxidized contacts. Also, do not try to replace the touchscreen yourself. Contact the service center.
It is important to know that only the outer glass or only the touchscreen cannot be replaced on the iPhone. The whole sensor is one part, so everything changes together.
How to avoid damage to the sensor in the future?
- Protect your phone outside and inside. You will need a case, a protective glass in size and a good antivirus.
- Back up your data periodically and free up phone memory. If it does not 'pull' the application, it means that it overloads the RAM and it is better to delete it.
- Do not experiment with unlicensed software and questionable applications.
- If the malfunction occurs due to overheating, then look for the cause inside the phone. The problem may be with the battery or dust ingress – contact a service center.